Guesses In BULK(Y)

Here's my post on the New York Time's Wordle Review comments for yesterday.

Wordle 956 5/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ SHONE   376 WL

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 TRAIL        18 WL

🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩 LUMPY       6 WL

⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩 FULLY         2 WL

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 BULKY

WordleBot

Skill 93/99

Luck 31/99

Streak 707

I *hate* using a word for Guess #3 (or later) that I *know* can’t be the solution. Some days — like today — that strategy is going to result in a big number.  Or (gulp) losing a game.  But for the 4th day in a row, it’s “Another day, another 4+ NYT Wordle average.” 

Guess #1 yielded nothing but gray squares this morning and Guess #2 provided only the L (out of position).  My super-nerdy record keeping provided guidance from Game #812 (LUCKY on 9/9/2023) that 18 solutions remained and The Bot’s favorite word in that scenario was PUBIC.  Now don’t get me wrong — I love me some PUBIC — but I did mention earlier my aversion to playing purely strategically for Guess #3 and higher.  My first thought was the previously used LUCKY — so I went with LUMPY instead.  The good news?  I now had U & Y identified and in position.  The bad news?  It looked to me like I was looking for a word ending —ULLY, with multiple opening letter possibilities (BULLY, DULLY, FULLY, GULLY) and not enough guesses left.  

I decided to use FULLY for Guess #4 — which showed me that I *hadn’t* fallen into the —ULLY trap.  But I still hadn’t found the solution.  Thankfully, BULKY seemed to be the only viable word remaining (BULGY?  I don’t *think* so…) — so I typed it in and watched all the letters turn green.  I lost to both The Bot (5 vs 4 — Bottie went with BULLY for Guess #3.  Pretty LUCKY, in my opinion) and the (current) NYT avg (5 vs. 4.3).  A bit humbling — but that’s not all bad.  Tomorrow is another opportunity to go “under par.” 

We received a good bit of snow here yesterday morning -- but high temps are supposed to reach the low 40s for the coming week.  So it's not clear how long yesterday's white stuff will remain with us.

Take care and stay safe.